Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think."
This quote is something which caught my eye with great interest. Society has difficulty this day and time with worrying about what people think about each other. At Athens Academy this is a pretty big dilemma because there are so many people worried about what other individuals think about the clothes they wear, what they drive, how they act, things they do, etc. It's depressing how people will change their personalities and actions to suite the likings of others. Emerson takes the other perspective of not caring what people think. He finds that being active and doing things in which he finds important is better than worrying about what others think. Consider how much time people waste worrying about what other people think, during that time Emerson is wondering about all the tasks which he needs to complete. There are more important tasks to be done in the world than worry about insignificant opinions of others. The reason why this quote appealed to me is because I tend to be the kind of person who says what is on my mind without caring what people think. I do not do this with intentions to hurt feelings, but I am not the kind of person who will spend hours trying on clothes to wear to school because to me it is more important that I get time in to study or finish homework and these are issues that concern me more than worrying about what people think about me.